
Gass. 
Book 









ADDEESS 



pit §1111011 %t&$nt of |p}tI;tMpIjia:, 

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THE CITIZENS OF PENNSYLVANIA, 



IN FAVOR OF THE RE-ELECTION OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, 607 SANSOM STREET. 

1864. 



T>6~- 



ADDRESS. 



Fellow Citizens : — 

The day rapidly approaches when some one must be selected 
to exercise the power and influence of the Executive branch 
of our Government during another term. The time has been 
when the character of the person chosen has excited but little 
interest beyond the circle of active politicians, because in the 
midst of peace and abounding prosperity, it was not considered 
of much importance. Easy duties do not demand great talents 
or peculiar qualities, and the duties of the Executive office are 
not difficult in such quiet times as it has been the happiness 
of our country to enjoy during the larger part of its history. 
But now our position is very different. We are in the midst 
of a great civil war, which has raged for more than three 
years, the issue of which is still doubtful, and which may, 
when the day for making a choice arrives, still be calling for 
more sacrifices to be offered on its blood} r altar. The stake in 
this war is no less than our country. The object of our 
enemies is to destroy it — ours is to defend it, to keep its 
d,omain entire as we received it from our fathers, to keep its 
name and fame high, as of yore, on the roll of the nations of 
the world. 

This has proved to be a difficult task, calling forth all our 
energy and demanding enormous sacrifices of blood and 
treasure. Our enemies are men of our own race. They 
have displayed the valor, constancy and ability that are the 
attributes of their blood and the fruits of free institutions. It 
will not be easy to subdue such a people, notwithstanding our 
superior power and vast resources, and when their military 
strength is subdued, it may not be very easy to convert them 



4 

from enemies to friends. Yet this two-fold task lies before 
us. We must subdue the rebellion, conquer and disperse its 
armies and force it to lay down its arms, not in submission to 
us, but to the majesty of the law, to tbe just authority of our 
Government. We must also convert the Southern people into 
friends and contented fellow-citizens. We do not desire them 
as subjects, as disaffected and conquered enemies, as a Venetia 
or Poland, dangerous alike in peace or war, and a contradic- 
tion to every principle of republican government. We desire 
to bring them back to us to share our rights, to participate in 
the blessings of a restored Union, and to help us build up 
again, higher and more glorious than ever, the edifice of our 
country's greatness. These two things, therefore, are what 
we must do. To succeed in tbe first and not in tlie second, 
would be to fail, for the first is to tbe second as means to 
end. 

It must be obvious to every one capable of thinking on the 
subject at all, that virtues and abilities, civil and military, of 
no common order, are necessary to execute this scheme, and 
that these must be possessed, not by one only, but by many 
or all of those to whom the powers of the Government are 
entrusted. These are not times for ignorance, imbecility, 
folly, corruption, or even mediocrity in high places. They 
are, indeed, never in such places appropriately or rightfully, 
but now, more than at any former period, it behooves us to 
place great power in competent hands. Integrity, courage, 
talents, knowledge, are necessary to save the country in this 
its hour of trial and danger. And because it is a time of 
danger from war and its consequences, the Executive Depart- 
ment is especially called upon for prompt, determined, wise 
and prudent action. If the Government be weak there, it will 
1)0 weak in everything necessary for its defence against the 
numerous enemies, open and covert, foreign and domestic, by 
which it is assailed. The army and navy, the finances, the 
diplomacy — these are the provinces that now demand adminis- 
trative ability for their successful management. They demand 
wisdom and prudence, liberal and national views and pur- 



poses, freedom from partisan passions or designs, freedom 
from selfish and ambitious personal objects. 

The President is the head of the Executive Department. 
He is the Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy. He 
appoints the members of the Cabinet. He has a general 
supervision and control over their action. Whatever they are, 
he sanctions ; whatever they do, he does and is responsible for. 
He is the guiding and sustaining spirit and will of Executive 
power, and its action will be in harmony with his character. 

For this reason, fellow citizens, and with a deep and solemn 
sense of the responsibility we assume, and of the vast conse- 
quences involved in your decision, we come forward to urge 
upon you the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. 

The fact that Mr. Lincoln is now the President, signally 
illustrates the nature of our government and the genius of our 
people ; the one offering free scope to all ability, the other 
eager and aspiring, ever striving to reach a wider sphere and 
higher eminence. Mr. Lincoln is of humble origin. His 
earliest home was a log-cabin in the West. His eyes first 
opened on an untamed forest, in which his father's axe had made 
a little clearing. As he was forest born, so he was forest bred. 
His strength of mind and body was developed by the labors 
and hardships of a settler's life ; the thoughts and sentiments 
of his dawning intellect were colored and impressed by the 
wild beauty of the rude scenes of nature around him. He 
inherited neither name nor fortune. Neither did he inherit 
education, in the ordinary sense of the word. Perhaps, how- 
ever, his early training was none the worse on that account, 
since he had the forest, its toils, and its dangers for teachers. 

The eaily Persians, we are told, taught their children "to 
draw a bow, to ride a horse, and to speak the truth," and thes 
children afterwards became the founders of a great empire. 
The axe and the rifle, to which the hands of the boy Lincoln 
were familiar, like the horse and the bow, educate those who 
use them to strength, address and courage ; and to speak the 
truth, to be faithful to duty in word and deed was the lesson 



6 

impressed on his youthful mind by his excellent parents. A 
lesson which has been his guide ever since. 

Mr. Lincoln, however, besides expertness in using the axe 
and the rifle, gained also the rudiments of knowledge in what 
was then the wilderness of Illinois, for in our Western States 
the school-master follows fast the footsteps of the pioneer. 
Thus equipped lie was prepared to enter upon the struggle of 
life in a new country, whose boundless resources offered a field 
for every sort of ability and a rich prize to bold enterprize 
and energy. The State was rapidly filling up with settlers, but 
there was work of the hand and of the brain for more than 
came or could come. Every man was of value. Every forci- 
ble man could make his mark and carve out for himself a 
career and a fortune. Such wa3 and is the character of our 
"Western countrv, and therefore has it grown and flourished as 
no land ever grew and flourished before. Into this rich field 
of promise Mr. Lincoln entered, and he sowed his share of it 
with seed that soon grew to an abundant harvest. The country 
suited him and he suited the country. He possessed industry, 
energy, prudence, native talent, perfect integrity, and these 
qualities, which tell anywhere, even in the crowded competition 
of cities, were speedily recognized where work was plenty and 
the workers few. We will not trace the early steps of Mr. 
Lincoln's career. They are of interest now only because they 
show what manner of man he was, and it is because he 
is now what he was then, that we wish to see him again 
President of the United States. Ability, industry, integ- 
rity, these rule in every sphere of life, however high or 
humble. Mr. Lincoln was soon trusted, because he was trust- 
worthy ; business sought him, because he could manage it ; 
respect and good will followed him, because his nature was 
noble and generous and kind and loving. He acquired a very 
honorable title among his neighbors. He was called " honest 
Abe Lincoln," a title which some may think rather familiar 
and inelegant, but that it was given spontaneously by the 
people, is a proof that it was merited. It is a republican title 
and indicates an order of nobility to which all good men pay 



willing homage. It is a title which every man who seeks 
high office should deserve, though many get office without 
deserving it. That Mr. Lincoln deserves it, no one can doubt 
who knows how it was bestowed. 

Mr. Lincoln soon aspired to higher pursuits than working 
on a farm or surveying land, or superintending a mill, or 
keeping a country store, or rafting goods down the Mississippi 
to sell in New Orleans for a commission. He had done all 
these things and did them well. Had he been an ordinary 
man he would have continued to do them, and would no doubt 
have prospered as ordinary men do, who are energetic, honest, 
and intelligent. But he was not an ordinary man. He felt 
within the impulses of an intellect, able to do more difficult 
and important work than farming or milling or buying and 
selling, and instinctively he sought that work. He felt that 
he could think, that he could acquire knowledge and his mind 
panted for knowledge, as the hart panteth after the water- 
brook. He felt also that he could make his thought and 
knowledge useful, not to himself only, but to the community 
in which he lived, to his State, to the nation. He ventured to 
claim the sphere of labor that suited him, which was therefore 
his right. His fellow-citizens, it seems, recognized that right, 
for in 1834, when he was twenty-three years of age, they elec- 
ted him to the Legislature by a large majority, and so well 
were they satisfied with him, that in 1836, 1838 and 1840, lie 
was re-elected. 

Mr. Lincoln was thus put to the sort of work that suited 
him — great interests, public affairs, unselfish action for the 
public good. We can well imagine that his sagacity, his in- 
dustry, his clear probity made him a most useful legislator. 
Doubtless also the nature of his duties made him feel more 
sensibly than he had done before, a deficiency in himself. He 
wanted knowledge : he was a law-maker, but he was ignorant 
of law. This defect was a bar not only to his advancement, 
but to his usefulness in the path he had chosen. It was not 
in his nature to yield to an obstacle which effort could over- 
come, so he determined to study law. In 1836, he was admit- 



8 . 

ted to the bar, and in the following year removed to Spring- 
field. 

His reputation soon brought him business. Large interests 
were confided to his care by merchants and capitalists in other 
States and in* Europe, whose attention was attracted to the 
rich resources and growing wealth of Illinois. But the prac- 
tice of his profession had revealed to Mr. Lincoln, that he 
possessed a gift which more easily than any other, opens to a 
man the road to distinction, — the gift of eloquence. Mr. Lin- 
coln could speak in such a way that all men listened when they 
heard him. His earnest and impressive manner, his. terse, 
forcible, idiomatic language swayed the meetings of the people 
and made them think his thoughts, share his convictions, ami 
■ glow with his enthusiasm. These assemblies afforded a more 
exciting arena for the display of power than the Court-House, 
and the great national questions which were looming up, like 
thunder-clouds above the political horizon, made, to one who 
felt that he could grasp them, the petty contests of the bar 
seem dull and tame. Mr. Lincoln studied law and practised 
law long enough to become acquainted with its general princi- 
ples and that is enough for a man who aspires to public station. 
He became excited by the political movements around him. 
movements which were the precursors to the war of giants 
which has since occurred, and he preferred discussing them to 
collecting money for eastern capitalists' or trying cases in 
County Courts. In 1844, lie traversed Illinois and Indiana, 
addressing almost daily, with great power and effect, assem- 
blies of the people to promote the election of Mr. Clay. In 
1846, Mr. Lincoln was sent to Congress, and all that he said 
or did there displayed his logical power, his practical ability 
and his unostentatious devotion to the claims of justice and 
humanity. He was opposed to the war of conquest waged 
against Mexico, and has left on record in a series of resolu- 
tions, a witty and withering exposure of the paltry and false 
pretexts by which, in order to make it, the provision of the 
constitution investing Congress alone with the power to declare 
war was evaded. In 1849, Mr. Lincoln brought in a bill for 



the conditional abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, 
and this bill exhibits the principles that, on this subject, have 
guided his conduct ever since ; principles at once conservative, 
moderate, just and humane. It provides for gradual emanci- 
pation and compensation to owners who choose to receive it, 
and whilst it shows respect to the Constitution and to the 
rights of property acquired under it, it shows also disapproval 
of slavery as an evil and a wrong. 

That Mr. Lincoln's course in Congress was satisfactory to 
his constituents is proved by the fact that, after his term 
ended, he was twice nominated as a candidate for the Senate 
of the United States, once in 1849 and again in 1858. He 
was not chosen on either occasion, the Republican party not 
having then gained the ascendency which it afterwards reached, 
and which in the West, was in great measure due to his elo- 
quence and reputation. From a humble origin he had risen, not 
by the arts of a demagogue, but by the steady and unobtru- 
sive influence of high character and high talents, to become a 
leader of the people. They trusted him. They had found him 
faithful over a few things and they made him ruler over many 
things. In every station of life, from a log-cabin of th.e wil- 
derness to the Capitol at Washington, he 'had worthily per- 
formed his duty. Pie might therefore rightfully aspire to the 
highest station, with full confidence that whatever the people 
could give him, they would. The future justified this confi- 
dence, and we believe will justify it again. 

When Mr. Lincoln was last nominated for the Senate, the 
rival candidate was Stephen A. Douglas, a man of distinguished 
ability and high reputation, who, when the war broke out, 
atoned for previous mistakes by ranging himself on the side of 
his country. He thus proved that his patriotism was stronger 
than his party-spirit, and had he lived, there can be no doubt 
that his passionate energy and eminent talents would have 
done good service, in the contest we are now waging to save 
the nation. He was, however, the author of the Kansas and 
Nebraska bill, by which the Missouri Compromise was re- 
pealed and the demon of discord on the terrible subject of 



10 

slavery was roused from its slumber of more than thirty years. 
Tli is bill involved the right of the general government to pro- 
hibit slavery in the Territories, and its first fruits wese the 
Missouri raid into Kansas, the election of a Kansas legislature, 
amid bloodshed and violence, by Missouri votes, and the Le- 
compton Constitution. 

Upon this question, Whether the Territories should be cursed 
by slavery or blessed by freedom ? issue was joined at that 
time, between the two parties that divided the country. Events 
have justified the profound interest which the subject excited, 
for out of it grew the present war. 

Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, respectively represented, in 
Illinois, the parties to this great issue, and slavery in the Ter- 
ritories was the exclusive and absorbing topic before the people, 
in the contest which was to decide which of the two should be 
sent to the Senate. The rival candidates traversed the State, 
discussing the question before the people, addressing, without 
personalities or undue warmth, the same assemblies, who lis- 
tened with deep interest, excited, indeed, by the eloquence of 
the speakers and the subject of the debate, but not moved be- 
yond -the bounds of order and decorum. Scenes honorable to 
our country and its republican institutions ; honorable to these 
two eminent men, Avho, though earnest opponents, were yet 
friends ; honorable to the people who thronged to hear them, 
opening their minds to reason, but shutting out passion from 
their hearts. 

In this celebrated contest it was acknowledged by all that 
the " Little Giant " had met his match. Stimulated by the im- 
portance of the issue, by the nature of the topics and by the 
growing excitement of the people, Mr. Lincoln surpassed his 
former efforts. Eepublican liberty, the rights of the lowly, 
the wrongs of the oppressed, the universal obligation of truth 
and justice, the universal claims of humanity and the mighty 
future of this great country in jeopardy, inspired him with 
unwonted enthusiasm. His invincible logic was colored by a 
glow of elevated sentiment and his usually sober and pithy 
style was warmed and enriched, at times, by his inspiring 






11 

themes to bursts of eloquence that stirred the hearts of the 
multitude with kindred emotion. We cannot forbear quoting 
from one of his speeches, made in this campaign, the follow- 
ing noble and characteristic appeal for the principles of the 
Declaration of Independence. 

" These communities, (the thirteen colonies,) by their repre- 
sentatives in old Independence Hall, said to the world of men, 
' We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are born 
equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with inalien- 
able rights ; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit 
of happiness.' This was their majestic interpretation of the 
economy of the universe. This was their lofty, and wise and 
noble understanding of the justice of the Creator, to his crea- 
tures. Yes, gentlemen, to all his creatures, to the whole great 
family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped 
with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world 
to be trodden on and degraded and imbruted by its fellows. 
They grasped not only the race of men then living, but they 
reached forward and seized upon the furthest posterity. They 
created a beacon to guide their children and their children's 
children and the countless myriads who should inherit the 
earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew 
the tendency of posterity to breed tyrants and so they estab- 
lished these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant 
future, some man, some faction, some interest, should set up 
the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, 
or none but Anglo-Saxon white men, were entitled to life, lib- 
erty and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look 
up to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to 
renew the battle which their fathers began, so that truth and 
justice and mercy and all the humane and Christian virtues 
might not be extinguished from the land, so that no man would 
hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles 
on which the temple of liberty was being built. 

" Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines 
conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of 
Independence ; if you have listened to suggestions that would 



12 

detract from its grandeur and mutilate the fair symmetry of 
its proportions ; if you have been inclined to believe that all 
men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enume- 
rated in our chart of liberty, let me entreat you to come back. 
Return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood 
of the Revolution. Think nothing; of me, take no thought of 
the fate of any political man whatever, but come back to the 
truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. 

" You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but 
heed those sacred principles. You may not only defeat me 
for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. 
While pretending to no indifference to earthly honors, I do 
claim to be actuated, in this contest, by something higher than 
an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and 
insignificant thought for any man's success. It is nothing ; I 
am nothing ; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy 
that glorious emblem of humanity — the Declaration of Ameri- 
can Independence." 

These words smack of the forest ; sturdy as its oaks, free 
as its winds, rooted deep in the heart of humanity, lifting high 
towards heaven the branches of its hope. 

Mr. Lincoln was not elected to the Senate. His long debate 
before the people, with Mr. Douglas, bore better fruit, both 
for him and for us. His reputation was enlarged by it. His 
talents, his earnest convictions, his evident devotion to high 
principles, were displayed on a wider theatre and drew atten- 
tion to his previous career. It was found then, as it has been 
found since, that what he had always been, was in perfect 
harmony with what he is. His life throughout was made of 
the same stuff, and, like a healthy tree, was sound to the 
heart. Our government had become imbecile and corrupt, 
through subserviency to the Slave Power. Every concession 
only increased the arrogant demands of the Southern leaders, 
who openly threatened to ruin the nation, if they could not 
rule it. The outrages in Kansas were succeeded by the greater 
outrages of the Dred Scott decision and the Lecompton Con- 
stitution. The limits of endurance at length were passed. 



13 

Evidently .the time had come when the question, whether 
American liberty should yield to African Slavery, must he 
decided. That this question would arise was foreseen, from 
an early period by the leading minds of the country. They, 
and those of a later date, trembled at the conviction that, 
sooner or later, as slavery waxed in power, it would either 
rend the Union asunder or perish in the attempt. At the 
time when Mr. Lincoln was defeated as a candidate for the 
Senate, the* movements of parties, the tides of opinion, the 
growing passions of sections, showed that the day for this trial 
of strength between North and South — between civilization 
and barbarism — had arrived. Instinctively all men felt wl : 
some saw clearly and certainly, that a crisis was approaching 
when patriotism, sincerity, ability and honesty, instead of 
partizan serfishness, obsequious falsehood, ignorant folly and 
brazen-faced corruption, must be invested with power, or our 
country, with all the hopes of its vast future, of liberty and of 
humanity, would be lost. 

Great emergencies call for great men ; and fortunate, indeed, 
is a nation if, in its hour of need, the great man comes when 
he is called, and can .be accepted. He always exists, bul 
often he is known only to a few, and cannot be recognized by 
the multitude in the simple attire of circumstances and man- 
ners, which really great men wear. In quiet times, great 
offices are filled by little men, and had been in our country so 
long, that, forgetful of the perennial and exhaustless powers 
of nature, we had begun to think that the breed of great men 
had run out. Few persons, here at least, cast of the moun- 
tains, would have expected to find our destined man, in plain, 
simple, unostentatious Abraham Lincoln, who was born in a 
log cabin, who had split rails on a forest farm, and had rafted 
lumber down the Mississippi. His name was unknown to m< ; 
of us. What he had said or done in Congress had not attracted 
the notice of the nation, and faint echoes only of his contro- 
versy with Mr. Douglas had crossed the Alleghanies. 

Fortunately, the Convention appointed to find out a captain 
fit to command in the approaching storm, met at Chicago. 



14 

Mr. Lincoln was known in the West ; he was appreciated and 
honored. ILis talents, his purity, his energy and firmness, had 
been displayed before the people, and the tones of his eloquent 
speeches, in his campaign of 1858, yet 'lingered in their 
memories and their hearts. The topic of those speeches was 
the extension of Slavery, and he argued it well. The kindred 
question now to be settled was — Shall Slavery rule America ? 
— and the people of the West believed that Abraham Lincoln 
understood that question and could decide it, whether by word 
or deed, better than any other man. Fortunately, so thought 
the Convention of the Republican Party that met at Chicago 
in May, I860, and they nominated him as the candidate of 
that party for the Presidency, unexpectedly to him, without 
his solicitation, almost, indeed, without his knowledge. How 
the nomination was received — how, as his character became 
known in the East, it inspired universal confidence ; with what 
enthusiasm he was elected as the chosen leader of the North, 
when the clash of arms could almost be heard in the immediate 
future which has proved so full of great events, need not now 
be told. The rival of Mr. Douglas, victorious in argument, 
though defeated in votes, had reached a higher place than 
either aspired to, when they discussed the question of Slavery 
in the Territories before the people of Illinois. The scene 
was changed, the audience was larger, the subject had grown 
to vast proportions, new actors were entering upon the stage. 
Not Slavery in the Territories, but Slavery in America, had 
become the theme of the nation, and it was to be settled, not 
by peaceful argument, but by the shock of armies. Innumer- 
able battle-fields red with brothers' blood, desolated farms, 
burning towns, mourning fire-sides, thousands of hasty and 
unknown graves in woods and desert wildernesses, were to 
attest what pith and substance and marrow there was in that 
Illinois debate — what unforeseen consequences its logic in- 
volved, how fierce and formidable was the Slave Tower, so 
dreaded by our fathers. When Mr. Lincoln entered the White 
House, Mr. Douglas was in the Senate. Had the latter lived, 
his antagonist in the Illinois debate would have found in the 



15 

North fewer friends and supporters of the Slave Power, to 
vilify his character, to misrepresent his motives and to cripple 
his efforts to save the country, in the great war that has 
ensued. 

The period that intervened between the election and the 
inauguration of Mr. Lincoln was fraught with deep anxiety. 
The South was arming. State after State was seceding amid 
a whirlwind of popular passion. An imbecile and corrupt 
administration was shivering in the blast, panic-stricken at the 
storm invoked by its own crimes and folly. Weakness and 
wickedness and partizanship were in power, when a crisis came 
that demanded patriotism, purity and force. The nation was 
found without a government at the moment when, almost for 
the first time in its history, a real government was needed. 
The time for attacking the nation was skilfully chosen by its 
enemies. The men who wielded its authority, were the humble, 
subservient tools of the Slave Power, put in office by that 
power, because of their subserviency. Evidently a great 
clanger menaced every interest and every hope, and there was 
no man on whose wisdom and courage the people could rely to 
meet it. During those terrible months from November, I860, 
to March, 1881, all eyes were turned towards Mr. Lincoln, not 
indeed with confidence, because he was unknown and untried, 
but with anxiety and fear, because he was the man chosen to 
cope with the threatening future, and if he could not, then 
indeed all would be lost. 

It is needless to recall to your recollection the incidents of 
his journey from Springfield to Washington. Never were the 
looks and words of any man watched with such eager curiosity, 
because every word and every look was an indication of his 
character, and therefore of our fate. At every hamlet, town and 
city, the loyal people crowded around him with welcome, con- 
gratulation and good wishes, and took courage from his coun- 
tenance and bearing, from the sentiments and opinions he 
expressed. The qualities that had inspired confidence in Illi- 
nois, produced the same effect wherever he appeared. Simple, 
sincere, conscientious, kind-hearted, firm and sagacious, Abra- 



16 

ham Lincoln was soon revealed wherever he could be seen and 
heard, and beneath the pleasantry and good-humor of the many 
replies he made to the greetings that awaited him, steadfast 
principle and stern determination could be seen, like mountain 
rocks under their drapery of festooning vines and woodland 
flowers. Before reaching Washington it was necessary to pass 
through a slave State, where a reception awaited him very 
different from the welcome he had before experienced. To 
escape plotted violence Mr. Lincoln was obliged secretly to 
enter the Federal Capital, and the ceremonies of his inaugura- 
tion were guarded by loaded cannon and ranks of armed men. 
More than anything he had yet said or done, his inaugural 
speech told the nation what sort of a man had been appointed 
to front the coming peril. With the exception of Washing- 
ton's Farewell Address, no State paper in our history deserves 
a higher rank. Calm in the midst of excitement, without pas- 
sion or invective, it discusses in clear and nervous language 
the momentous questions of the hour. Whilst by invincible 
argument it exposes the sophistry of treason, in words, not of 
command or menace, but of kind and affectionate entreaty, it 
endeavors to call back traitors to reason and to duty. Its 
spirit is thoroughly national ; there is not a sentiment in it that 
indicates the partizan. It is wholly impersonal ; Abraham 
Lincoln does not appear ; the executive power of the nation 
seeking to save the nation alone speaks. Elevated wisdom, 
the enlarged views of a statesman, devotion to the whole coun- 
try and to the constitution, patriotism embracing all sections 
and all parties, the graciousness of a loving heart, clear per-^ 
ception of 'duty and invincible determination to perform it, are 
the characteristics of this remarkable document. It struck 
the key note of the grand national symphony that was to fol- 
low, and which is now playing in thunder tones throughout 
the land, to close, we hope and believe, in an exulting finale of 
victory and triumph ; a victory, not of arms only but of reason ; 
and a triumph, not of conquerors but of patriots, north and 
south, rejoicing over a restored country and a permanent 
peace, so that the list words of Mr. Lincoln's speech may 



17 

prove prophetic, winch declare, that " The mystic chords of 
memory, stretching from every battle field and patriot grave 
to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, 
will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as 
surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." All 
that has happened was prefigured in that speech. War was 
in it should war be necessary ; right, reason and constitutional 
law, liberty and justice, patriotism and duty were in it. Read 
it, fellow-citizens, read it, again and again. It sent a thrill 
of hope and joy through all loyal hearts when it was spoken ; 
it will be read by your children and your children's children ; it 
will shine in our history both as a warning and a guiding star. 

On the 4th of March, 1861, Mr. Lincoln undertook the 
arduous task which events and the choice of his countrymen 
had set before him. He was to run wilder rapids than those 
of the Mississippi, and had entrusted to him a more precious 
cargo than raftsman ever carried. He is yet in the middle of 
the stream, and the angry waters are foaming around him. 
But he has passed the worst place, and shows an eye so steady 
and a hand so quick and strong, that we have good hope, if 
he remains at the helm, the haven will be reached ere long. 

No man ever entered office in our history whose duties were 
so difficult, whose responsibilities were so great, or whose path 
was so beset by danger and embarrassment. War had sud- 
denly broke out in a country which so long had been lapped 
in the blessings of peace, plenty and security, that it was 
wholly unprepared for war. There was neither army nor navy 
at all adequate to the emergency. The treasury and the 
arsenals had been robbed, the public ships sent to distant 
regions, by the conspirators in office before him, in order to 
strip the nation of its means of defence at the moment of the 
premeditated attack. Traitors and spies filled Washington, 
and lurked in every department of the Government. The 
city was surrounded by hostile territory. The Border States 
were restless, excited, unfriendly, and hesitating on the brink 
of secession. It soon appeared that the two leading nations 



18 

of Europe, under cover of technical neutrality, encouraged tlie 
rebellion by their sympathy, and were watching the current of 
events, to give it active aid should a favorable opportunity 
offer. More dangerous than all, a Northern faction, preferring 
old party ties to their country, took sides with its enemies, 
justified their treason, advocated their cause, and stimulated 
their efforts and their hopes by presenting to them the spec- 
tacle of divided councils, and by placing every obstacle that 
ingenuity could devise, in the difficult path of the Government. 
The South was in arms, the Border States were arming, and 
Northern democrats, because the rebels were democrats, could 
find no more worthy employment than to fan the flames of 
passion that threatened destruction to the nation and its 
hopes. 

It would far exceed the proper limits of this address to 
relate by what efforts Mr. Lincoln, assisted by the military 
and civil ability which he summoned to his aid, and sustained 
by the loyal masses of the North, has partially overcome the 
formidable perils and difficulties by which he was surrounded. 
They are still numerous, but enough has been done to inspire 
hope of ultimate success. Fleets and armies, rivalling in 
strength, and surpassing in many points of excellence, those 
of the most warlike nations of Europe, have been suddenly 
called into being. Military genius has been evoked, recog- 
nized, encouraged, tested and rewarded. A masterly system 
of finance has created in war a better currency than we ever 
enjoyed in peace, and so arranged the heavy debt made neces- 
sary by the war, that it has become a favorite investment for 
all classes of the people, strengthening thus the ties that bind 
them to the Union, and is likely to prove a benefit instead of 
a burthen. European intervention has been averted by skil- 
ful and prudent diplomacy, aided by military success. The 
wavering loyalty of the Border States has been confirmed and 
noAv stands secure on the stable basis of voluntary emancipa- 
tion begun and soon to be accomplished. 

Every hope on which the South relied has been defeated. 
Steadily, if slowly, the rebellion has receded before the loyal 



19 

armies of the North, and now it is fighting, as we believe, its 
last battles in Georgia and Virginia. The three years of the 
war have been crowded with toil, achievement and sacrifice, 
yet they have been, to the North, years of prosperity and pro- 
gress. The enterprise of business has not flagged, the activity 
of labor has not paused. If the waste of war has been great, 
production has kept pace with it, whilst the ranks of industry, 
thinned to supply our armies, have been filled up by emigrants 
crowding to our country, preferring it, though torn by civil 
strife, to their fatherland. Nothing in the past has so sig- 
nally displayed our boundless resources and the intelligent 
energy of our people as this combined triumph of the arts of 
peace and the arts of war, in the midst of such a contest. 

Now, we ask, to what is this triumph due ? Is it not to the 
ability with which the Government has been administered ? 
As we have already said, Executive power is necessarily 
prominent and active in periods of civil strife and public 
danger, and what else but the thoughtful mind and strong will 
which have wielded that power for the last three years, has 
developed the resources of the nation and directed the energies 
of the people ? Less conspicuous, but as important, has 
been the direct influence of Mr. Lincoln's peculiar character 
on the course of events. The prudence that sought attainable 
objects only and by adequate means ; the tact that felt the 
pulse of popular sentiment and saw the tendencies of opinion, 
so as to move neither too fast nor too slow, and apparently to 
follow, yet really to lead ; the firmness that- could resist pres- 
sure, whether from friends or foes ; the moderation that could 
yield to either when expedient, if concession compromised no 
principle ; the steadfast adherence to conviction when once 
attained ; the patience that could wait for slow but sure 
results; the large, sound common sense that sees things 
they really are and the laws that rule them ; the catholic 
nationality that knows neither fear, favor nor affection for any 
party or any man ; the profound sense of duty and responsi- 
bility to the present and to the future, to the South as well as 
to the North; integrity that inspires confidence; good temper 



20 

that disarms animosity ; a loving nature and genuine heart- 
goodness that win affection ; these are the qualities that have 
achieved the greatest victories of this war. They have been 
spiritual and moral victories over the wild excesses of fanati- 
cism, the rooted hatred of caste, the venomous resentment of 
party spirit and the reckless violence of popular passion. The 
virtues and talents we have described conquer wherever they 
appear, because men pay them willing and spontaneous 
homage. They have gained for Mr. Lincoln the confidence 
of the people as no man in America, save Washington, ever 
gained it before. 

Who, then, is so fit to lead us into the uncertain future, to 
cope with its difficulties, to solve its problems, to front its 
dangers, as the man who has thus been tried and not found 
wanting ? Who has such experience of the past, who knows 
the currents of opinion, the characters of leading men, the 
strength or the weakness of our cause, so well as he who has 
studied them from the first, and with larger means of know- 
ledge than any one else can command ? What new man can 
enter his place 'with the information he possesses ? What 
inexperienced hand can finish the work he has so successfully 
begun ? And who else is so trusted by the people ? Bold and 
rash and ignorant indeed would he be who should venture on 
such a task. Weak and foolish and unfit to use the ballot-box 
would a people be who should prefer the untried to the proven ; 
who, before the storm is over, should discharge the pilot that 
knows the ship and had carried her safely through the worst 
of it? 

The war is not yet over. ISo one can say when we shall 
again enjoy the blessings of peace. But Ave cannot fight 
forever, and with such generals and such armies as are now 
in the field for the Union, we may not unreasonably expect, 
that the larger portion of the next Presidential term, perhaps 
the whole of it, will be occupied by the work of restoring 
what is worth restoring of the past and of providing new 
securities for the future. We have already said that a U\o- 



21 

fold duty lies before us. We must conquer the rebellion ; we 
must also convert the Southern people into friends and fellow- 
citizens, co-workers with us in our mission to build up and 
perpetuate a great Empire of Republican liberty in this 
Western world, co-partners with us in all its prosperity, power 
and glory. This latter may prove the more arduous task of 
the two. Such a war as this does not pass away when its last 
cannon is fired, nor are its consequences, evil and good, eva- 
nescent as the smoke of its battles. When the physical con- 
test is over, the antagonism of opinion and feeling remains, 
stimulated by the mortification of defeat, by ruined estates 
and by mourning hom§s. A deeply-rooted social system, in- 
terwoven with law and custom, supporting and supported by all 
the interests and all the habits of a vast and wealthy region, 
is to be destroyed by this war, and a brave and proud, not to 
say reckless and arrogant people, now fighting for that system, 
are to be at once compelled and persuaded to consent to its 
destruction and to be reconciled to its loss. We must do both, 
or our hope of regaining the old American security, liberty, 
peace and plenty — of renovating our great Republic — can never 
be realized. These two things are not easy to do. They will 
test the ability of our Government. They will test also the 
patriotism, the good sense, the moral sentiment of the Northern 
people. It is not a work for ignorance and weakness, for 
partizans or fanatics, for the revengeful, the ambitious or the 
corrupt. What intricate constitutional questions must be 
solved; what conflicting interests reconciled; what fierce 
passions stilled ; what seditious violence quelled ; what rash 
projects resisted ; what raging factions restrained ; what hot 
enthusiasm moderated ; what wounded sensibilities soothed ! 

Fellow-citizens, the work before us is difficult, but it is pos- 
sible, because it ought to be done, because it is our duty to do 
it, because it is right, and whatever is right accords with the 
laws of God's government, and therefore is possible. And how 
is it to be accomplished? By the two great moral forces that 
rule the world, — by justice and love ; — by the justice that satis- 
fies all, by the love that blesses and therefore wins all. 



22 

This is not an occasion to discuss the various plans of recon- 
struction proposed when peace shall enable us to attempt that 
work. We can only say, that so far as they fail in obedi- 
ence to the divine laws of justice and of love, Christian love 
to men as brothers, to Southern men as countrymen, so far are 
they mistaken. But we must remember that justice is stern 
and inflexible, and carries the sword as well as the scales. 
War is justice in a righteous cause and so are the consequences 
of Avar, security against its renewal, security for the full attain- 
ment of its objects. Punishment is justice. The world is 
defrauded when a great crime fails to meet merited retribution — 
and treason is the highest crime. To abolish slavery is justice, 
when it can be done without inflicting injuries greater than 
its own. Slavery is a crime. As Mr. Lincoln said recently, 
"if it be not wrong, then nothing is wrong." Because it is 
wrong, it is an evil, as the condition of the South and of all 
other places where it has existed may testify. The recognition 
of slavery was the fatal error of our Constitution, as the dis- 
cord it has caused from the beginning and the present war 
prove. Slavery caused the war. If permitted to remain it 
will cause war perpetually. It is a contradiction to our free 
institutions, a blot and blemish on our name and fame, a curse 
to the fair regions where it exists, a bar to their progress in 
civilization, a depraving and poisonous influence on the char- 
acter of their people. 

When this war commenced, it was thought possible and 
desirable by many, to quell the rebellion and yet preserve 
slavery, so deeply rooted was this barbarous institution in our 
laws and our habits of thought, so insidiously had it twined its 
interlacing branches around all our interests. But, 

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will." 

Ere long the war taught us that it meant nothing less than 
the destruction of slavery ; that we must destroy it, or it would 
destroy us ; that it was inconsistent with liberty, peace or 
security ; that no government can endure which is founded on 



23 

falsehood and crime ; that no people can permanently prosper 
who maintain a falsehood and foster crime. Slavery is false, 
because it declares that men can be property. It is a crime, 
because it degrades men to the condition of property, because 
it shuts out from their souls the light of knowledge and the 
means of improvement, because it permits and justifies cruelty 
and oppression. Long enough had an indignant world beheld, 
in the great Republic, men and women bred for sale and sold 
in the market-place like beasts of the field. Long enough had 
our christian civilization been shocked and outraged by this 
heathenish outgrowth of African barbarism in our midst. Long 
enough had the slave power, bloated with the gold of com- 
pelled and unpaid labor and drunk with the pampered pride 
of habitual tyranny, domineered over our elections, corrupted 
and controlled our government and bullied the free people of 
the North with tin-eats of revolution and disunion. At length 
the day of retribution has come. The first shot fired in this 
war sounded the knell of slavery. For every reason of princi- 
ple or of policy, of morality, of religion or of prudence, it is 
just to destroy it. Indeed it has already received its death blow. 
The war has multiplied its enemies a thousand fold, and though, 
should it not now be formally and irrevocably abolished, the 
Democratic party and the South will seek to restore its former 
vitality and power, they will fail. The attempt would renew 
sectional strife, revive all the old issues and cause another war, 
and still another, until at length the evil thing be rooted out 
forever. ' An institution like slavery can never harmonize with 
the opinion of an enlightened and advancing age and nation. 
It will necessarily be attacked and eventually destroyed by 
that opinion. It will be destroyed also by the crimes and folly 
engendered by itself, by the haughty spirit that goeth before 
a fall. This scandal of our country, this black and contrasting 
stain on the fair mantle of our law, might have continued for 
an indefinite period to be our plague and disgrace, but for the 
madness of the South. The Union and the Constitution were 
the only defences of slavery against the verdict of the world's 
civilization, and the Southern people have attempted to destroy 



24 

the Union and the Constitution. We propose to restore both, 
but no longer as the bulwarks of slavery. The Southern peo- 
ple refused to be warned or entreated and spurned alike the 
obligations of duty and the dictates of prudence. They have 
perhaps since discovered the truth of the proverb, that " He 
who will not be ruled by the rudder, must be ruled by the 
rock." 

Now what is the character of the various measures proposed 
by the Administration ? Are they not measures of security 
and of merited punishment, so that this unprovoked and there- 
fore wicked rebellion shall not pass away without leaving a 
warning to the future ; so that this calamitous war which it 
has inflicted upon the country shall not have been made in 
vain. If so, these measures are just — just in their spirit and 
intention — and it is of these, not of their details, that we wish 
to speak. They were dictated not by the exultation of 
expected victory — not by vengeance or passion — but by a 
prudent regard to the interest of the future. Can we safely 
permit the Leaders of the rebellion again to become the 
leaders of Southern politics — again to sit in Congress and ful- 
mine, as of yore, their audacious treason over the land ? Can 
we, without danger, leave them in the possession of wealth 
and the influence of social position, latent, but powerful 
enemies, ever ready to plot another conspiracy, to intrigue 
with disaffected allies in the • North, or with jealous and 
unfriendly foreign powers, or to join an enemy in case of 
foreign war ? Can we, prudently, permit them, as soon as 
their hands have dropped the bayonet, to seize upon the ballot- 
box, without some pledge that they will use it as American 
citizens, and not as domestic enemies ? Are not loyalty, 
fidelity, allegiance to the Government, necessarily a condition 
precedent to the right of suffrage, implied in its very nature ? 
Is not the idea of giving to the enemies of the Government a 
legal right to destroy it by votes, whilst we resist their efforts 
to destroy it by violence, a glaring absurdity, inconsistent 
with the existence of a government ? 



25 

But are all these measures constitutional ? This is a ques- 
tion often asked by those who think the rebellion constitutional, 
■who have sympathized with it from the beginning and are 
never weary of extolling its leaders and denouncing ours, of 
exulting over its victories and our defeats, of predicting its 
success and our discomfiture, and who have given it all the " aid 
and comfort" in their power, short of overt acts of physical 
force and have indeed in some cases not stopped short of these. 
This is not the place to discuss such questions. They will 
be settled by time and events, by the Courts and the Legisla- 
ture and the people. The war has taught us some valuable 
lessons of constitutional law which plain men who are not 
lawyers, can understand. It has taught us that the govern- 
ment must have power to save the nation ; that whatever is 
necessary to that end is constitutional ; that the people are 
the nation, and that the constitution exists for the people ; 
that the constitution belongs to us, the people of 1864, and 
that we have a right to modify it to suit our needs according 
to our will ; that this government is a nation, and that the 
national power, representing the American people, is supreme 
over national interests ; that the Union cannot be legally 
destroyed by a State, or by violence ; that the whole country, 
in its length and breadth, every acre of it, is the national 
domain, over which the national government has sovereign 
power, whenever and wherever State power has never existed, 
or has ceased to exist, in fact or in law ; and moreover, the 
ordeal through which we are passing has shown that these 
truths are all in the constitution, which, fairly and liberally 
expounded according to its spirit and purpose, by statesmen 
rather than by demagogues — by patriots, and not by parti- 
zans — does invest the government with all the power necessary 
to preserve itself and the nation. These principles sanction 
and support the measures before alluded to, planned by the 
government to restore the Union. 

We have been charged by our enemies, South and North, 
with a determination to " conquer aud subjugate the Southern 
people." We do propose to conquer their armies, if we can ; 



26 

to punish their leading men — guilty, as they have been, of 
plotting and maintaining a most wicked rebellion ; to establish 
temporary national authority in the place of suspended State 
authority, until the latter may be restored without risking all 
that the war is waged to save. Armed rebels have no State- 
rights — no rights under the Constitution, which they defy ; 
no rights whatever, indeed, save those of belligerents, accord- 
ing to the law of nations. 

We expect to subjugate the Southern people by benefits. 
When the sword is once sheathed, we shall offer them the right 
hand of friendship, of fellowship and equality, if they will 
accept it as loyal citizens of the United States. We shall 
offer them such State-rights as we ourselves enjoy, which do 
not include the right of secession, and as soon as they are 
again States on these conditions, a seat by our side, as before, 
in the councils of the Nation. We shall ask them, we do now 
invite them to become again States and citizens on the sole 
condition of renouncing slavery and the fatal doctrines and 
practices that have grown Out of it. Why should they refuse ? 
Slavery, as it before existed, is virtually dead, and can 
never be permanently revived, as they themselves admit. 
Only to protect it, did they attempt to withdraw from the 
Union. Now that slavery is or soon will be destroyed, the 
only cause of discord between North and South is removed. 
There Avill be nothing left to fight about, if, when their armies 
are beaten and dispersed and their ports and strong places in 
our possession, the Southern people arc able to fight. \\ ill 
they maintain a mere guerrilla warfare, still more to waste 
their substance and devastate their section ? W hy should 
they ? Their dream of independence can never be realized, 
and if it could, their position would be weak and contemptible, 
compared with that which they might enjoy in the Union. It 
is not reasonable to* predicate of a people so intelligent, that 
they will continue to prosecute a hopeless and destructive war 
for an object, which, if attained, would prove, not a benefit, 
but an injury — not increase, but loss, of power, importance 
and security. 



27 

Civilized nations do not keep up useless war until the 
sources of civilization are destroyed. The interests of property, 
the manifold enjoyments and hopes that belong to cultivated 
and refined life, interfere to prevent a return to barbarism, by 
putting an end to a hopeless contest. Men easily submit to 
the inevitable, even when it decrees loss and misfortune; much 
more easily when it promises beriefits. The inevitable to the 
South means ports re-opened, commerce revived, cotton on its 
way to market, plantations and farms restored to the plow, 
the desolation of war repaired, homes replenished with comfort 
and refinement, the smiling and happy faces of women and 
children once more at the board and the fire-side. It means 
the blessings of an honorable peace, of a more perfect Union 
than the old, of a free government. We offer all these to the 
South with one hand, even although, for a time, we must carry 
a sword in the other. When the sword has done its work — 
and we pray earnestly that there may not be much left for it 
to- do — the Southern people are made of different stuff from 
the rest of mankind if they do not accept our offer. 

Thus do we hope, by obedience to the Divine laws of justice 
and of love, to execute the arduous task before us, to have 
again a Country and a Government. No man on earth so 
completely represents and embodies our thoughts, our aspira- 
tions and our will as Abraham Lincoln. We know that lit- 
is just, we know that he can be inflexible, we know that his 
nature is noble and generous, that he has a kind heart and 
warm affections, that he loves his whole country, and that the 
most earnest desire of his soul is to see the American people 
once more a united people, a band of brothers, sharing in har- 
mony the rich inheritance left to them by their ancestors — 
the richest in the world — working together to adorn it by all 
useful and all elegant arts, to fill it from end to end with the 
trophies of science and the harvests of industry, with abund- 
ance and beauty and joy, and to make it forever the home of 
the free and the asylum of the oppressed. 



28 

Such, fellow-citizens, are the purposes and hopes of the 
Union party, and such its candidate. He "was unanimously 
nominated by a National Convention of that party, who at the 
same time adopted a platform of the principles upon which 
they are willing to go before the country in the great issue to 
be decided next November. That platform is so plain and 
clear that no one can misunderstand it. It means the restor- 
ation of Peace and Union by victory over armed rebellion. It 
means the preservation of Peace and Union by the destruction 
of slavery, by the punishment of treason, and by just and 
generous treatment of our countrymen in the South, the 
moment they cease to be our enemies and become our fellow- 
citizens. Our platform is positive and real. Unlike that of 
our opponents, it has in it no equivocation or ambiguity, and 
was not meant to mislead or betray. It is like our candidate : 
open, fearless, straightforward and sincere, and he can stand 
on it firmly and avow all its doctrines, without hesitation, mis- 
giving, or mental reservation. What the meaning is of the 
Democratic platform, it does not say. It means peace, or 
war, or Union, or disunion, according to the construction that 
any Democrat may choose to put upon it, and it was thus art- 
fully contrived to sweep parti zans of every variety of opinion 
within its net. Neither does its nominee seem to know whether 
he stands on it or not. What he means and intends, he either 
cannot or will not say. One thing, however, is clear enough : 
he and his platform and his supporters mean concession to 
armed traitors, for the sake of restoring the party alliance 
between Northern Democrats and the Slave Power, which 
existed before the war. That alliance has, in truth, never 
been broken. The enormities which sprung out of it caused 
the war; it exists now, tacitly and virtually, notwithstanding 
the war, and the hope and purpose of the conclave who met 
recently at Chicago,' is to maintain and strengthen that alli- 
ance, by yielding to our defeated enemies the fruits of victory. 

Such are the principles and such the candidates of the 
parties that now divide the country. Men of Pennsylvania ! 
choose ye between the two. 



29 



Morton McMichael, 
N. B. Browne, 
Horace Binney, Jr., 
Charles Gibbons, 
John W. Forney, 
Edw. C. Knight, 
John B. Kenney, 
Charles Gilpin, 
Henry C. Carey, 
Ellerslie Wallace, M. D., 
George Whitney, 
Daniel Dougherty, 
Edward Shippen, 
Benj'n. H. Brewster, 
J. I. Clark Hare, 
Algernon S. Roberts, 
George H. Boker, 
John H. Towne, 
Joseph Harrison, Jr., 
Cadwalader Biddle, 
James H. Orne, 
Thomas Birch, 
J. L. Claghorn, 
Frederick Fraley, 
James W. Paul, 
Gibson Peacock, 
Daniel Smith, Jr., 
Edwin Greble, 
Andrew Wheeler, 
J. C. Knox, 
William S. Pierce, 



J. GlLLINGHAM FELL, 

William D. Lewis, 
Lindley Smyth, 
Wayne McVeagii, 
William H. Ashhurst, 
John Rice, 
George Bullock, 
Samuel J. Reeves, 
William Struthers, 

F. A. Comly, 
Craig D. Ritchie, 
Samuel H. Perkins, 
Saunders Lewis, 
Edward S. Mawson, 
Ward B. Haseltine, 
Stephen Colwell, 
William Sellers, 
Augustus Heaton, 
J. G. McQuade, 

S. H. HORSTMANN, 

Henry D. Moore, 
E. R. Cope, 
Fairman Rogers, 
Hanson Robinson, 
Abraham Barker, 

G. Dawson Coleman, 
E. W. Clark, 
George J. Gross, 
Wm. M. Tilghman, 
R. P. King, 
Ferdinand J. Dreer, 



30 



E. Spencer Miller, 
jos. b. townsend, 
Geo. Plumek Smith, 
John P. Verree, 
Henry C. Lea, 
George Trott, 
James C. Hand, 

Committee of Seventy-six appointed by the 

Union League of Philadelphia. 



A. D. Jessup, 
William H. Kern, 
A. G. Cattell, 
Thomas S. Ellis, 
George Erety, # 
Archibald Getty, 
E. W. Bailey. 



s 






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